Monday, June 29, 2015

The IHA “Inspired Home”
summer media event took place on Thursday, June 11, at the Metropolitan West,
an open and chic event space in the Clinton neighborhood just outside of
Midtown – and LCWA client Contigo was
on the scene, ready to help editors create inspired commutes for busy families
on the go.

Contigo showed off a range of products from spill-proof kids cups
and innovative water bottles to the latest design in its popular AUTOSEAL collection,
America’s best-selling line of travel mug. Over the course of just a few hours,
Contigo met with more than 20 media contacts to elevate brand awareness with
top-tier influencers and generate buzz for upcoming gift guide stories. We had
a great time showing off Contigo’s continuous innovation to NYC’s top
influencers and we look forward to several great fall stories as a result!

Friday, June 26, 2015

Sound sleep is of the utmost importance to our client AADSM –
the only non-profit national professional society dedicated exclusively to the
practice of dental sleep medicine. This month, the organization gathered its
members around the Puget Sound in scenic Seattle to discuss the latest
research, clinical guidelines and tools involved in administering oral
appliance therapy to patients.

LCWA participated in the meeting as well, updating members on
our campaign to raise awareness of oral appliance therapy nationwide and also
holding a course on social media for dentists interested in growing their
online networks. The meeting was a great success, attracting a full third of
the membership – a record-setting number of attendees for an AADSM Annual
Meeting.

It was our pleasure to be involved this year and we look forward
to spreading the findings from a host of award winning research abstracts
presented at the meeting to trade and consumer audiences this summer!

Despite the inclement weather Chicago is having, summer
perhaps is starting to find its way just in time for the end of June! Here are
my favorite finds this week:

Instagram
Update – The latest
improvement includes updates on the Explore page, featuring curated sets of
photos based on individual tops as well as dedicated pages for trending topics
and places. Check out PR
News’ recommendations for how to use Instagram hashtags in brand campaigns.

It’s a
Match! – OkCupid,
Match.com and Tinder have gotten together and decided they all want the same
thing – to be one big happy
family. As of later this year they will be listed on the public stock
exchange as “The Match Group,” formerly acknowledging that the online dating
industry is stronger than ever.

Wiki News
– This week The
New York Times reported that Sunshine Sachs—an agency specializing in
celebrity PR and crisis communications—paid editors to alter clients’ Wikipedia
pages – violating Wikipedia’s terms of service. The clients included Campbell,
Mia Farrow and Sarah Brightman. PR
News puts out the question about the effect this has on our industry.

Remember
Clippy? – The Microsoft Office character which was so familiar to many –
and greatly despised – might
not have made it if Microsoft had listened to focus groups. The
documentary Code: Debugging the Gender Gap uncovers how the women
addressed Clippy’s overall “creepiness,” which was ignored back in 1996, as
well as other diversity issues in the tech industry.

Google
Cars Hit the Road – The Google Self-Driving Cars are now on
the roads in California driving at a “neighborhood-safe” 25 mph. Google is
even taking advantage of this to receive some feedback from other drivers on their website where you can
learn more about these cute cars!

Poop Poop
Platter? – Disney is gaining attention for their
newest treat that you can buy when visiting the Animal Kingdom – chocolaty
treats shaped like animal dung. It currently comes in four different species:
giraffe, elephant, hippo and tamarin.

Tuesday, June 23, 2015

As part of the Urgent Care Association of America’s (UCAOA) first National Urgent Care Awareness Month,
we recently conducted a Twitter chat in partnership with popular mom/lifestyle
blog Shibley Smiles. In addition to
the lively discussion about when urgent care is appropriate and tips for
finding the closest urgent care center (www.whereisurgentcare.com!), many
participants tweeted their personal stories about their great experiences using
urgent care. The chat informed participants about this affordable and
convenient healthcare option for immediate but non-life threatening medical
events, and generated more than 25 million Timeline deliveries and reached more
than 630,000 Twitter users! We were thrilled to be a part of such a successful
Twitter chat – and to help patients across the country be more
#UrgentCareAware!

Friday, June 19, 2015

From big weather to an even bigger victory, LCWA’s Chicago
office was in the center of the action this week. As we head into the weekend,
check out my favorite finds below!

Wild Weather: Strong storms caused widespread
flooding and prompted tornado warnings across the Chicago area Monday, making
for a soggy
commute for many LCWAers.

Rise to Glory: #WeGotTheCup! More than 2 million
Blackhawks fans celebrated the Stanley Cup’s return to Chicago this week. DNAInfo.com
captured some great moments from Thursday’s parade and rally downtown.

Fall from Grace:NBC
officially removed Brian Williams as anchor of its nightly news following
its investigation into false claims the star anchor made on air. While he heads
to MSNBC to report on breaking news (at a lower salary), Lester Holt takes the
reins of NBC Nightly News – becoming the first solo African American anchor of
a weekday evening newscast.

“Like it” or Not: Social media users can enjoy
Facebook content without necessarily “liking” it. To account for these
interactions, Facebook is developing a new
algorithm that considers how long a user lingers on a post before scrolling
on as an indication of their enjoyment.

Wednesday, June 17, 2015

Sleep is an essential part of a healthy lifestyle – just
like diet and exercise – but often goes overlooked by most. Not getting enough
healthy sleep can cause myriad common, serious health problems and can lead to
early death. To increase the awareness and urgency for Americans to prioritize
sleep, experts from client the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM) joined
a panel of their colleagues in sleep medicine – the first of its kind – to
evaluate the evidence about how much sleep the average adult needs. Out of
these meetings came the first official expert consensus on sleep duration:
adults need at least 7 hours of healthy sleep for optimal health. Another
interesting aspect of the consensus is that too much sleep is not a culprit in
disease. After learning of the announcement, the TODAY Show
featured two panel members from the AASM on its website, which
reaches nearly 10 million people each month. Make sure you’re scheduling enough
time to get the recommended amount of sleep, and see a sleep specialist if you
are at risk for sleep problems.

Tuesday, June 16, 2015

In an effort to stay on top of emerging social media trends,
the LCWA team recently
coordinated a successful sweepstakes for Trex
on the online design and décor community, Houzz. LCWA
was able to help launch the Trex “Decked Out” Sweepstakes in a space where
contests and giveaways are uncommon, and as a result, more than doubled the
number of followers on Trex’s Houzz page.

Participants were asked to add selected images to their
Ideabooks in order for a chance to win a piece of Trex Outdoor Furniture and
were encouraged to share the sweepstakes with friends through multiple social
platforms. The sweepstakes was heavily promoted across Trex’s other social
media sites, such as Facebook and Pinterest, and ended up generating over 1,800
entries.

We received the Technology Achievement
Award for the American Academy of Sleep Medicine
program, “Sleep Well, Be Well,” which is aimed at educating Americans
about the extreme importance of sleep for overall health. In addition to
national media results from CNN, the “Today Show,” USA Today and more, the
program also featured many engaging Twitter chats, microsites and infographics,
as well as an online pledge for patients vowing to “Stop the Snore"
and seek treatment for sleep apnea. The AASM program also
won an Award of Excellence at the PRSA Chicago ceremony.

The LCWA team for Electrolux also brought
home awards for the “Choose Your Own Adventure" media event, which brought
Electrolux, Eureka and Frigidaire Professional products to life for home
and technology editors during a very engaging New York City press day. The
creative and results-generating event won the PCC Silver Trumpet, PRSA Chicago
Skyline Award and IABC Bronze Quill Award of Excellence.

Our Contigo team celebrated success when the “Best Refreshed" product launch took home both the PCC
Silver Trumpet and IABC Bronze Quill Award of Excellence. This year-long
campaign launched the newest version of the brand's best-selling travel mug, the
West Loop, giving the product media exposure and word of mouth among
bloggers, moms and urban commuters.

At LCWA, we measure success in many ways -- successful
campaigns, sales increases and happy clients among them. But it's also very
gratifying to receive the validation of our peers through these respected
awards. Congrats to all of this year's winners!

Friday, June 12, 2015

This week showed even Nobel prize winners are capable of
committing boneheaded PR mistakes, and it is also brought a slew of new

social
news. Let’s get into it:

Big
Timers: This week was PR awards season here in Chicago with both the
Publicity Club of Chicago and PRSA Chicago annual awards. LCWA took home some
sweet hardware. Check out the pictures on our Instagram account.

The
Non-Apology: A Nobel laureate made some unwise (and ignorant) comments in
front of a room full of journalists, and then compounded that mistake by
issuing a half-hearted written apology, saying “It was a very stupid thing to
do in the presence of all those journalists.” PR Daily has a breakdown,
or you could just watch this
clip of Larry David in “Clear History.”

Breaking
free of the DM character limit: Twitter announced,
to the cheers of social media managers everywhere, that the company will remove
the 140-character limit from its direct messages. Handling customer Twitter
complaints just got much easier.

Pandora
like 8 second videos: Instagram does 15 second video ads, and Vine does 6
second clips, but it sounds like Pandora is going to push its advertisers towards
8-seconds.

Reddit
cracks down: Reddit, an Internet community known for having users who are
very passionately anti-censorship, took
some flack from those users after removing five subreddits for being
offensive – the first time that has ever happened.

Thursday, June 11, 2015

When you represent
the world’s leading manufacturer of high-performance composite decking, it can
be difficult to showcase products to media. It’s not like we can easily ship
out samples of finished decks. So, as the saying goes, we brought Mohammed – or
Trex in this case – to the media mountain in the form of a dedicated product
preview event hosted at Meredith Corporation’s headquarters in Des Moines – home to many of the country’s leading shelter and lifestyle
publications, including Better Homes
& Gardens, Country Home, Midwest Living and Traditional Home.

To elevate Trex as the ultimate outdoor living resource, we invited editors to join us for a fun and
informative lunch-and-learn “picnic.” While our media guests enjoyed a catered
lunch of picnic favorites,
Adam Zambanini, senior vice president of marketing for Trex, shared the Trex
story – from inventing the first
composite deck boards to “engineering what’s next in outdoor
living.”

Editors were
then invited
to engage with Trex’s extensive
portfolio of products and resources viaa series of interactive displays.
The mini-expo engaged editors and proved
an ideal conversation starter for pitching
and exploring future coverage opportunities.

Rather than using a
“one-size-fits-all” press kit, we created customized packages for each of the
attending editors. Contents included actual tear-sheets and screen shots from
their respective print and digital publications customized with Trex images to
show how the brand might fit into their content. Based on the feedback we received
both on-site and since the event, editors were extremely impressed and
appreciative of this thoughtful approach to our
leave-behind materials.

The well-attended event
attracted editors representing more than 20 top print and online properties. By bringing Mohammed to the mountain, we were able to reach more editors
with a single visit and showcase Trex in an experiential and memorable way.

As far as results go,
Trex effectively solidified relationships with known editors, established rapport with new editors, and laid the
groundwork for future editorial coverage.Adam Zambanini
was interviewed on-the-spotby the host of“Living the Country Life”radio, which reaches 1.9 million listeners. Additionally, as a direct outcome of this visit, Trex
Outdoor Storage will be featured in an upcoming issue of Better Homes & Gardens Outdoor Spaces magazine. As we
proactively follow up with all of the event attendees, we look forward to
securing additional opportunities that move mountains for Trex.

Tuesday, June 9, 2015

Recently, the LCWA home products PR team worked for
months with a reporter at America’s highest circulation newspaper, The Wall
Street Journal. But all of the effort, including an international
conference call that included product designers in Sweden, a reporter in New
York and staff, and our team, was worth it. The article, on the best
vacuum cleaners for every cleaning style, gave great exposure to the new
Electrolux Ergorapido
Lithium Ion vacuum cleaner. Combined, the
online article and publication in the weekend print edition reached almost
seven million readers in the Electrolux audience – a great feat for the brand
and for our team.

Friday, June 5, 2015

This week the
Twitterverse offered lots of insight into who is on social media and how it’s
affecting our behavior. Here are some of my favorite finds:

Streaming
is Changing Cultural Consumption – Music-streaming
services such as Pandora are getting users to check out other genres they may
not otherwise have been exposed to. Spotify listeners, for example, are exposed
to an average of one new artist each day. A recent New
York Timesarticle discusses how these services are blurring the
boundaries between music genres.

Chicago
Cubs’ First-rate Fans
– Beyond the baseball field, Chicago
Cubs fans rank number one in cheering on their favorite team on Twitter and
Instagram.

The Social
Numbers – A new
report offers insight into how
demographics effect social media habits. While we all know that younger
generations dominate the digitalverse, you may be surprised at the number of
Americans aged 55 and older using networks such as Facebook and Pinterest.

The Faces
of Business Get Linked
– The number
of CEOs using social media (80 percent) has more than doubled since 2010 –
and LinkedIn is their network of choice. Twenty-two percent of CEOs reported
using LinkedIn, while none of them reported using Facebook.

Prepare Your Wallets, Shopaholics! – E-commerce gets another boost from social
media. This week, Pinterest
introduced “buyable pins,” which include a “Buy It” button next to the
usual “Pin It” button, offering consumers less clicks to finalize their
purchase. Now, more Pinterest users may actually complete all those DIY
projects!

Thursday, June 4, 2015

As summer unofficially kicked off with Memorial Day weekend,
it was perfect timing for a lawn mower giveaway. The LCWA/Sun Joe PR team secured
and coordinated a spot on the TODAY
Show with Kathie Lee & Hoda “Give It Away” Sweepstakes to mark the
beginning of warm temperatures. With 40 minutes of quiet run time and an instant
start at the push of a button, the cordless SunJoe iON Lawn Mower made a fabulous appearance on set, as
both Kathie Lee and Hoda picked five viewers from more than 10,000 entries to
receive the exciting lawn mower prize. It was a great day for Sun Joe with over
1.8 million viewers and five new Sun Joe iON Lawn Mower owners to advocate for the battery-powered technology!